


to love and to cherish

by salakavala



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Thor (Movies)
Genre: A tiny hint of Angst because Loki, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon, Fluff, Hints of Smut, Intersex Loki (Marvel), Jotunn Loki (Marvel), Loki and Thor Are Not Related, Love Confessions, M/M, Tenderness, but mostly:, mentions of mpreg, soft, soft and sweet
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-27
Updated: 2019-11-27
Packaged: 2021-02-25 22:14:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,618
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21582865
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/salakavala/pseuds/salakavala
Summary: Asgard and Jotunheim are at war.To Thor and Loki, that's merely a hindrance.
Relationships: Loki/Thor, Loki/Thor (Marvel)
Comments: 36
Kudos: 390





	to love and to cherish

The night of Jotunheim is cold and quiet. Only a sheer veil of clouds spreads beneath the black sky, doing nothing to hide the numerous stars and constellations peeking through. The stars are different from the ones at home on Asgard, but during the past few months they have become increasingly familiar to Thor. The war with Jotunheim has lasted for over a year already, and will likely last long enough for Thor to learn the name of every star on the Jotun sky.

No one stops him as he walks out of the camp. The guards are well used to their Crown Prince’s nightly restlessness, and Thor being the highest authority in the camp, anyway, no guard would dream of trying to hinder him.

It has become a well-known path for Thor over the duration of the war. Outside the camp, he swings his hammer and takes to the sky, over the plains and into Ironwood that the locals call Járnviðr. He lands among the robust trees into soft, knee-high snow, and follows his own old, well-trodden trail to a clearing nearby. There, he sits down on a stump so massive it could serve as a table for five people at least, and waits.

He does not have to wait for long. Soon he hears the familiar steps, so quiet that were he not expecting them, he would not have heard them at all. He rises to greet the comer with a smile.

Loki’s face does not reflect the same kindness. The Prince of Jotunheim halts within several steps from Thor, arms crossed, a scowl on his face.

“Loki,” Thor greets him, and closes the distance between them. He leans in to kiss Loki’s cheek; Loki evades him.

Thor frowns, confused. “Is something the matter? Have I done something to displease you?”

Loki snorts half a laugh, half a bark. “What a curious way of phrasing it.”

Thor has become familiar with Loki’s sometimes mercurial nature during their trysts, but this time he is fairly certain there is nothing he might have done to upset the Jotun Prince. Yet here Loki stands, sleeve-covered arms crossed over his bare chest, glaring daggers at Thor with all the might of his blood-red eyes that even the shadows of the forest cannot dim.

“Loki, tell me.”

“I’m pregnant.”

The blunt announcement leaves Thor gaping. Of anything that Loki might have said, he never expected this; his eyes fall to Loki’s blue, still very much flat belly. “What?”

“I’m pregnant, you dolt!” Loki snaps, and, evidently self-conscious about Thor’s gaze, wraps his arms about his belly instead. His voice, when he continues, has a slightly hysterical note to it. “Do you have any idea of what this means?”

Oh, hasn’t Thor. He is dimly aware of the volatility of the situation, of him, the Crown Prince of Asgard, impregnating the enemy Prince during an active campaign. Odin, he knows, will be enraged. And yet, instead of the alarm that should take over Thor, he feels a dizzying wave of joy instead.

“We… we are having a babe.”

“Yes! As if my people didn’t already have enough excuses to hate me! Now I’m not only a useless runt, I’m also a traitor, fornicating with the enemy! Do you know what my father will do to me if he finds out? Do you have any idea of what will happen when they see that the babe has Aesir blood? They’ll kill my child along with me, and all just because _someone_ cannot control his fertility powers and apparently rendered all my precautions useless!”

Though Loki’s eyes are red, his tears are the same as Thor’s. He wipes them away with an angry palm and snarls when Thor catches his wrist, pulling him close. Thor closes his arms tight around Loki, hushes him gently, rocks him in the sleepy silence of the wintry woods. Loki hisses and fights his hold, but gradually ceases resisting. He melts against Thor, hiding his face in Thor’s shoulder, curling his fists in the fur of Thor’s cloak.

“I don’t want to get rid of it,” he whispers barely audibly into Thor’s neck.

“Shh,” Thor murmurs softly, petting the raven curls, the trembling back. “We won’t have to. We’ll figure out something.”

“How? My father will kill both myself and the babe. He’ll do it himself.”

“No, no. I won’t let him.”

Loki laughs, bitter and frightened. “You won’t be there to stop him.”

“I won’t let it happen,” Thor repeats firmly. “I will march to him across the battlefield and ask for your hand. Or I’ll steal you in the heat of the battle. Then they can’t blame you.”

“You’d be surprised for all that I’m blamed for.”

Thor hesitates. “Or you could come with me now and not look back.”

Loki is quiet for a long time, face still hidden in Thor’s furs. The woods are silent around them, an odd snowflake floats down here and there. Some of them land in Loki’s raven hair; on Thor’s nose, where they melt.

“And what will I be, among your people?” Loki finally asks.

Thor’s heart hammers in his chest. His relationship with Loki began soon after the war had moved on to the Jotun territory, first as clashes between two enemies, then as… well, still clashes between two enemies, but now far more pleasurable in nature. Eventually they both quite appeared to forget that they were supposed to be enemies at all, and became something else entirely. They have not truly discussed it, Loki and he, as they both have seemed to think that as long as the war goes on, their trysts won’t see an end, either – and the war has promised to go on for a very long time still.

But this changes everything.

“You will be my consort,” Thor says firmly. He knows what Loki is afraid of; a lifetime being ridiculed and continuously looked down upon in Laufey’s court has left Loki’s self-esteem in shambles, and deep vulnerability now resides beneath his spikes. He fears insignificance, being discarded at the earliest inconvenience, and, knowing this, Thor cannot help but shake with emotion at the implications of Loki coming to him now, having learnt of his condition. It gives Thor hope that what he has known in his heart for a time now is, perhaps, mutual.

“Your father will never allow it,” Loki whispers brokenly.

Thor shakes his head. “He will. He won’t have a choice. It is our law: if a tryst between two unmarried people results in pregnancy, and the mother decides to keep the child, the one who fathered the babe is bound by honour to wed the mother, if she so wishes. My father has often reminded me that kings stand not above the law, but must lead by example. He won’t be happy, but he will not be able to take his words back now without losing his face.”

“I am not Aesir.”

“The law makes no specifications about races.”

Loki pushes Thor a step away by the chest to peer into his eyes. Initially, Thor used to find red eyes ugly, and then unnerving at the very least, but now he only considers them beautiful – like rubies, and like blood, and like roses in his mother’s gardens. But even so, Loki’s scrutiny can be quite… intense.

“You would do this?” Loki asks, voice teetering between doubt and disbelief. “You would actually wed me, and recognise the babe as yours?”

“I doubt they’ll need my word for anything once the babe is born,” Thor grins. “That is… it _is_ mine, right?”

Loki flushes adorable lilac and swats Thor on the arm. “Of course it is, you áss.”

Thor smiles at him fondly. “Then, yes. If you’ll have me. I love you.”

The last bit slips free quite unplanned. Thor has been hesitant to bring it up, until now – but, considering that they are talking of marriage here and Loki carries Thor’s child in his belly, the time is perhaps ripe for the confession.

Loki gapes at him, shocked. Thor covers Loki’s hands on his chest with his own, and cannot stop smiling.

“You love me?”

Thor nods. “I’ve loved you for most of our acquaintance,” he admits. “Ever since we began to talk after all the lovemaking. You wasted no time in capturing my heart, my love.” He leans in to plant a peck on the tip of Loki’s cold nose.

“You… love me,” Loki murmurs as if in awe, staring up into Thor’s eyes. “You love me,” he repeats, and this time it is not a question. He grabs Thor’s face in both hands and pulls him into a kiss so fierce that it instantly ignites the embers in the pit of Thor’s belly. Thor wraps his arms around Loki and pulls him close, closer, until there is nothing between them other than their clothes, and even that is not enough.

“Say it again,” Loki demands into Thor’s mouth, not bothering to break apart to speak, and Thor follows the order with giddy pleasure. He says it again, and again, and each time he repeats it he means it even more than before.

“I love you, Loki. I love you. I love you, I love -”

“Yes,” Loki pants, climbing on Thor, deftly unfastening any hindering laces, “Yes, Thor, I will, I will -”

“You’ll be mine,” Thor groans as Loki’s wet heat swallows him eagerly, “We’ll be each other’s for all the world to see -”

“Yes,” Loki sobs, and, later, when they are resting on Thor’s furs in the bubble of warmth Loki has cast around them, he brings his lips to Thor’s ear and whispers, “I love you too.”

*


End file.
